The joy of finishing second in the league...invariably a really hard start to season away from home. Okay, sometimes it's a cakewalk, but usually things are a little tricky.

Thanks to a jammy win by last seasons class of the field to get promoted, we now have an even tougher opponent for the title. We also have the two new promotees, and another team that liked the cut of our jib and transferred into our league.

Had a good look at my opponents for the weekend and figured that with a standard early season PIC I was outclassed. In fact, on a MOTS I'd only be making it 50/50, so it was PIC/Press/Pray time. After just two minutes we went ahead from a corner, then they equalised a minute later, a bit of a breathless start, and it calmed down a bit after that, as we pressed away a chance. It unravelled a bit and we went into half time 3-1 down. Us with only 43% possession, I'm not surprised at the score. They bagged another in the second half, and we missed one, for a 4-1 final score. Chances were 9-2 to them, so definitely not complaining about the result.

Unfortunately it was the biggest pasting handed out at the weekend, with two score draws and one 5-3 so we're bottom of the league currently. Early days though. Stats suggest I've got the third best team, which away on a PIC is a good sign, but it's still pretty tight, apart from first, they're head and shoulders above the rest. Looks like two more seasons in this league then at least, maybe it's a good time to do some long term plans. I've got mostly homegrown trainees in midfield, though not on the wing, so it might be time to get some fresh mono-skilled strikers and do some passing training, but that'll be a lot of set pieces skill walking out the door, and as over 30s I won't get much for them. As ever, decisions decisions.

Lost 4-2 at the weekend, with my second team - keeping the first team for a cup run.Mentally I've written off this season in the league as I need to drop back to 5% stamina and do some concentrated PM training, Currently training Passing, and will switch when I'm out of the secondary cup.

I made a rare transfer in the off season. I had 3 technical forwards, and since they updated the specialities and introduced Powerful Normal Forward I have been mulling over selling one of them and replacing with a Powerful. I'm really not active in the transfer market (other than selling YA players) and so any excuse to sit on my hands I've taken. However as last season progressed I was seeing more of the top teams target TDF through man marking which makes perfect sense. Doesn't tend to happen down in V, but I should get ready.So I sold my level 13 technical scorer with secondaries in PM, Passing and SP for £600k more than a level 15 powerful scorer with passing secondary. The market clearly hasn't yet caught up with latest thinking, or are secondaries really valuable?

Donut102 wrote:However as last season progressed I was seeing more of the top teams target TDF through man marking which makes perfect sense. Doesn't tend to happen down in V, but I should get ready.So I sold my level 13 technical scorer with secondaries in PM, Passing and SP for £600k more than a level 15 powerful scorer with passing secondary. The market clearly hasn't yet caught up with latest thinking, or are secondaries really valuable?

A nice rounded player is always valuable, SP isn't a lot but with passing and PM, the finished article in other words, there's a premium paid for that. Or perhaps you just got lucky.

To be fair to the market, I think I only did a man marking order once last season, and didn't see anyone else do it in my IV, but it's not the most active series. And I missed a memo, I was just looking through the manual for the specialities, and I must have missed a memo about powerful forwards. I always reckoned from my forward training days that technicals and head were the most popular for forwards, probably in order head, technical, quick unpredictable, then powerful a long way down, not sure why, that should change over time, so well done for getting ahead of the curve. I might be in the market for some forwards, if I decide to switch to passing training, so I shall watch out for this.

Passing & PM were only at level 9 or so, so a long way off the finished article. SP was a bit better at 12, but again not great.

The Powerful Normal Forward needs high PM to be effective, which is why its going to be a rare beast - if you're going to have a dual skilled Score/ PM then you'd want to play it defensively. And if you're going to do that then you want Technical to get the guaranteed boost to passing.But at the higher levels TDFs are being negated by man marking.

I always reckoned from my forward training days that technicals and head were the most popular for forwards, probably in order head, technical, quick unpredictable, then powerful a long way down

IMHO Technicals are still the best, but can be nerfed by man marking. The PNF option has now boosted Powerful, so overall I'd rank all Forward specialities equally.

Off to a decent start this season.Won the first game 0-4 against the team that dropped down from IV, which was a relief, then we had a 9-0 drubbing of a bot. Equal top at the moment, next game is away to what I thought was going to be my closest rival, except he seems to have sold most of his 1st XI this last week, and has only bought a trainee in reply. Looks like he may be starting afresh, but will watch to see who else comes in this week. Might be an interesting season...

Oh, and another thing. Are players getting to be more expensive? I'm shopping for IMs or wingers but we are talking mega millions all the time for titanic+ (and a decent age).

Eastheath wrote:Oh, and another thing. Are players getting to be more expensive? I'm shopping for IMs or wingers but we are talking mega millions all the time for titanic+ (and a decent age).

It is traditionally the more expensive time of the market in the season, but...I don't go shopping much so I haven't noticed. Well, my last winger did seem like a hill of beans. No doubt that'll all change by the time I sell any of my wingers or IM trainees.

Anyway, had a careful look at the opposition, figured I'd have plenty of possession, so lined up in a standard 3-5-2 with the ol' Binkster WTM-IMTW trick x 2. 60% possession, chances were 10-0 to me, a little harsh on my oppo, but then I only managed to slot 4 of those away. Probably for the best we didn't PIC. We jump up to forth in the table.

Anyway, had a careful look at the opposition, figured I'd have plenty of possession, so lined up in a standard 3-5-2 with the ol' Binkster WTM-IMTW trick x 2. 60% possession, chances were 10-0 to me, a little harsh on my oppo, but then I only managed to slot 4 of those away. Probably for the best we didn't PIC. We jump up to forth in the table.

When I read this I thought you'd hacked by HT account!Here's my summary of Sunday's league game:Anyway, had a careful look at the opposition, figured I'd have plenty of possession, so lined up in a standard 3-5-2 with the slight twist of the ol' Binkster using WO-IMTW trick x 2. 72% possession, chances were 11-0 to me, a little harsh on my oppo, but then I only managed to slot 4 of those away. We did PIC. We jump up to forth in the table.

I had another of those matches I should have won at home but didn't and picked up a 1-1 draw. They had 5 of 10 chances with 53%ish possession. I had enough attack ratings to expect to have scored at least 2 of my 5, and maybe 3 had I had a bigger share of the chances as the possession would normally suggest.

I.m bottom of the table with one point and away to the strongest team in the Prem next.

Hopefully I'll get a better result tomorrow with England at home to Latvia, to distract me from the difficult season ahead in the Prem.

Bink333 wrote:I had another of those matches I should have won at home but didn't and picked up a 1-1 draw. They had 5 of 10 chances with 53%ish possession. I had enough attack ratings to expect to have scored at least 2 of my 5, and maybe 3 had I had a bigger share of the chances as the possession would normally suggest.

I.m bottom of the table with one point and away to the strongest team in the Prem next.

Hopefully I'll get a better result tomorrow with England at home to Latvia, to distract me from the difficult season ahead in the Prem.

When I say 53% I mean 43-44%, I had 57-56% so was a bit miffed to only get 50% of the chances.

and as I got dumped out the cup with a 177th minute kick in the baws, I've just spent £5.3m on a trainee*. Well, me strikers are getting a bit long in the tooth, and I want to do some passing training. It's only money eh? And then you look at the transfer compare of the ones he's replacing...uh oh! Might struggle to get 3 decent trainees. Any early bids out there for a monoskilled ET IM? Spare a talon for an ex-leper?

Actually, the transfer list is a bit crazy really. Okay, so I get hoarding money is bad, but you can't seem to keep more than 9 million or something, and that looks like that's not even two players of the calibre I want. And I'm in IV.

UncleIan wrote:and as I got dumped out the cup with a 177th minute kick in the baws

Umm, 117th minute rather. 177th minute would be a very long penalty shootout!

This week we were away to last season's fourth placed team, who have had a couple of tough matches and are on zero points. My guesstimate was that we'd have a little more possession than the predictor said, as they picked up some injuries last week. I was fairly confident, but PICing away from home confident? Not quite. We both went for a 2-5-3, so it was a bit of a goal fest. I ended up with 60% possession, and with me winning attack v defence 70/30%, it should have been a cakewalk (what even is a cakewalk?). It was certainly the predicted goalfest though, 2-3 to me after 11 minutes? Hope the crowd weren't malingering in the pub before coming in. 2-4 at half time, but we stretched our legs in the second half and romped to a 3-8 win. Chances were, erm, 3-8. One of my older strikers for sale went out in style with four goals in his final match before being sold sometime over lunch today.

My opponents are stuck firmly to the bottom of the table still with zero points, though it's early days. Meanwhile we pop up one more place to third on six points. First are unbeaten, while second are on 7 points.

Spent all my money, but seem to be getting a good price for my sales, so may be in the market for another striker passing trainee, and just debating whether to sell a few winger trainees that have decent passing already. Will have to sell to buy though, my hill of beans is rapidly diminishing. All this rare activity for me meant I looked at the transfer page, where I saw my slightly second best goalie from my super-pair (U-20 caps etc etc) was for sale...

I think I trained him to titanic Keeper and SP, though I'd have to have a look into the Motley Fool archives to see what he was. I sold him for £3.5m, he's changed hands since, and clearly someone's been busy, he'd now got mythical SP and world class defending. Not too shabby. If you've got deep pockets, and I mean deep deep pockets, he's yours for a mere £6.8m.

I played the second team on a PIC, expecting to win 2-0. Actual ratings were in line with expectations, but the luck gods were against me - they scored early on, and I only converted 1 of my chances. Final score 1-1, and 2 points dropped.Now in 5th place, 5 points off the league leader. I don't see the leader dropping any points between now and the end of the season when we meet again in the final game - therefore I kinda guess my league campaign is over.I'm not too upset though - the plan is to change training from passing to PM after the cup campaign, giving the 100% slots to my defenders and forwards. Which means my MF ratings will be pants for the rest of the season, and training is sooo much easier when you're not arsed about the result.

Still in the cup, and the match this week looks as if I could win. Last week we posted our best ever hatstats at 329, and if I win this week it will be a new cup record.

We had a (surprise?) 2-3 away win in the George Carey cup against a decent team, not sure why I was surprised but I was. Maybe because my No.1 keeper is crocked with a +2 and his understudy is er, not very good. The reward in the cup is a much easier game next round. Assuming I have a keeper.

The league match went according to plan, the rebuilding oppo hasn't started his rebuilding yet, so his best player had only 11,000 TSI. This gave us a chance to take 3 points so we did, with a 0-5 away win that keeps us top of the table and already 2 pts clear of second, who will be our toughest opponent now. Am carrying four injuries, three to first teamers (a defender, keeper, and attacker).

And the next game is.....home to second place, our toughest opponent. The match the week after is a bot, so I can afford a MOTS next game and then PIC the week after to balance out again. A win here would open up a nice gap. As my injured keeper wont be ready, I've have had to splash out on a temp replacement, he's one skill notch down but he's affordable. I cant' afford a like for like replacement.

I know you guys are all sitting on £5m+ but I'm more of a £1m man myself....

Well in a reversal of fortune, I picked up a point yesterday in a game I had no business getting anything other than a good hiding.

They had a divine m/f and attack ratings with over 50% against my defense in every sector. I had an outstanding m/f and was on PIC-CA just bending over the headmaster's chair, waiting for my spanking.

It never came.

Sure enough they had 10 chances to my 3, but they fluffed all but 3, and we didn't fluff any, including the tech v head SE from my Tech IM,

So I'm up to 6th on 2pts.

Friday was good. England won 2-1. I went with a 100% defensive 4-4-2 CA strategy to cover off any possible attempt by them to win m/f and at the same time put road blocks up in defence against any potential CA. We had a pretty thin advantage, but it was an advantage and we held on for the 3pts after a penalty and a corner to anyone SE put us 2-0 up, they scored in the 80th minute which made the last 10 minutes a bit nervy. I discovered yesterday that England had the highest hatstats in the competition on Friday, which is a great way to kick off the campaign.

I was knocked out the cup last night. I got £80k prize money - I'm sure I didn't get that last year when I was knocked out at the same point. Have the rules changed?

I was a bit disappointed to lose. I had 55% possession, but chances fell equally 5-5. Opponent scored 3 of his 5 chances, which seemed fair enough (my defence isn't great).I failed to covert any of my chances. I went asymmetrical, with central attack and one wing. Of course, 2 of my chances fell to the weak wing. My central attack was very strong with good confidence, but failed to convert.

And he sold. Astounding. That's £136,667 in mother club money. Kerching!

On to the important stuff, we were at home to second place, we were in third, so, obviously, time to not muck about or take it steady. Looking at the ratings I figured my standard 3-5-2 on a PIN would do the job. They decided a switch from Normal to CA would be the best move...but not change formation from 3-5-2, only make all his defenders CB not their normal WB-CB-WB. My wing attacks are better than my central attack. We probably had the rub of the green mind you, with most of my chances falling to my wings, we had 65% of the ball. 2-0 at the end of the first half, we scored another two in the second half, while they only managed a late consolation to deny my keeper a clean sheet. 4-1 final score. Chances were 8-4, so not an unfair result I reckon.

That result sees us up to second in the table, first marches on with another win, so we're three points behind them. Hopefully I can stay in touch with them. Already the league seems to be splitting into two, with 5th back on 4 points, 5 behind me.

Next week at home to seventh, so should be okay but there's always the chance of a banana skin.

I got outplayed at the weekend with my opponent executing a well planned counter attack strategy. Despite having 65% possession, chances fell 7-6 to me. I could only convert 1, and opponent converted 2.

That leaves me in 7th place is what is a relatively simple league V. I will avoid the auto relegation slots, but really need to do better!

On Friday I went counter attacking again with England, away to Syria who pressed. Paper beat stone but only thanks to a quick SE converted, as they put up some seriously high defence ratings (Divine +10 in one sector at one point). The 1-0 win moves us into 2nd spot 2 pts clear of third, and behind Romania on goals scored.

On Sunday I was at home, in a midfield slug-fest with both teams man-marking each other successfully. This fixture was one where I'd drawn in similar circumstances toward the end of last season, so I was pleased to get the 3pts, converting my better possession into more goals.

5pts keeps me in 5th, and 4pts ahead of this opponent who is 8th with 1pt after 4.

On Tuesday, I went PIC against an LS side in the Cup and was held to a draw after 90 and 120 minutes. I would expect to lose a Pen shoot-out agaianst any half-decent LS side, but didn't do myself any favours by failing to sub my wretch xp ex YA trainee SP taker on 90 minutes, and he duly crumbled under the pressure. I suppose it just foreshortened the agony of going out 18-16 or whatever.

This means that I'm in a consolation Cup, but I may opt to train my younger players in set pieces while I'm still at relatively high stamina, before next season's planned drop to 5%. I'll see what the opponents look like I guess...

At home to the team in 7th, should be a cakewalk right? If I can't PIC this...so I look at the stats, I suck my teeth, a PIC would be really helpful for future weeks, but it seems a bit chancy. PIN it is, in a normal 3-5-2 with one WTM-IMTW combo. I figure I'll have plenty of possession, but my attack is weak against their defence, and my defence strong against their attack, so I am wary of the draw. Yup, definitely a PIN.

After 3 minutes they missed a chance, then we bagged one with a quick special event, then we missed one in the first half. 1-0 with 58% possession. Second half we missed and scored again, then they put a penalty away with 8 minutes to go, so the end of the match was a little nervous. We got through though, 2-1 final score, 8-4 chances, so the proportions matched!

We stay in second, three points behind the leaders, five points ahead of 5th, and 11 points ahead of 7th.

Tough tough away match next week against 4th, another of this season's new teams, a well balanced team with decent midfield stats. Not sure going toe to toe will work, will have to have a ponder on this one.